1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a vehicular lamp. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a vehicular lamp having a control optical section with a lens member that closes a reflector in which an optical path notch or an optical path hole is formed. This arrangement makes effective use of light while securing a size reduction.
2. Related Art
Some vehicular lamps include a lamp outer housing composed of a lamp housing and a cover that closes an opening of the lamp housing, a light source inside the lamp outer housing, and a reflector inside the lamp outer housing to reflect light emitted from the light source to guide the light in a predetermined direction.
Some such vehicular lamps are configured to have a small thickness (size) in the front-back direction and to secure a wide light radiation range (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. JP-A-2000-276917).
In the vehicular lamp disclosed in JP-A-2000-276917, a part of the reflector is bent in a predetermined shape to provide a primary reflective surface and a secondary reflective surface positioned farther away from the light source than the primary reflective surface, and the reflector is formed with an open portion that allows passage of light emitted from the light source. The light emitted from the light source is reflected by the primary reflective surface, or passes through the open portion so as to be incident on and reflected by the secondary reflective surface.
In the vehicular lamp disclosed in JP-A-2000-276917, however, some of the light emitted from the light source passes through the open portion, and the flux of light that passed through the open portion becomes gradually wider as the light travels farther away from the open portion. Thus, depending on the position and the size of the secondary reflective surface, some of the light that passed through the open portion is not incident on the secondary reflective surface and, therefore, the light emitted from the light source may not be used effectively.
When some of the light that passed through the open portion is not incident on the secondary reflective surface, the brightness of the radiated light reflected by the primary reflective surface and the brightness of the radiated light reflected by the secondary reflective surface may be significantly different from each other. In this case, the brightness of light may be uneven in the radiation range to cause uneven brightness.